'Because I Couldn't Stop for Death' explores the inevitability of death and the uncertainties surrounding what happens after people die. "Death" is personified as a "gentle" gentleman, who takes the reader on a mysterious journey through time. Unlike most lyric poetry, the poem was not given any title by the poet. We say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayDickinson incorporates his typical form, using six quatrains with each stanza representing different stages of the speaker's symbolic journey. What distinguishes it from the dominant aesthetic of its time is the way in which it tends to break away from the norm. What his contemporaries might have called spasmodic, imperfectly rhymed, and formless, we now regard as a deft interplay of meaning and music. Most of the poem continues in this regular meter, although the ABCB rhyme scheme diverges into off-rhymes: "meimmortality", "awayCivility", "RingSun", "chillTulle". In the British tradition, the term "lyric" comes to designate short, intimate poems, often written in the first person and directly expressing the thoughts and feelings of the speaker. In contrast, lyric poetry's emphasis on interiority and individuality meant that it became increasingly popular from the Romantic period onwards; it is the default mode of "modern" or "bourgeois" poetry. Dickinson's poems are texts, generally defined as short poems with a single interlocutor, not necessarily the poet, expressing thoughts and feelings. As in most lyric poetry, the speaker in Dickinson's poems is often identified with the first person "I". Despite this, Dickinson reminded a reader that the "I" in her poem does not necessarily speak for the poet herself: "When I assert myself, as the representative of the verse, it does not mean me, but a supposed person." ”. In this poem, the “I” addresses the reader as “you.” Another essential feature of lyric poetry lies in the kind of moods and emotions expressed by the poem. These emotions tend to lean towards the extremes of life. Fittingly, Dickinson, like much of her work, centers the poem around "Death," who is "gentle" and "civilized" through personification and allusion. Dickinson incorporates a kind of humorous irony that although she "could not stop for death," "Death" finds time to "graciously stop" for her. Humor is not traditionally associated with authentic lyric poetry, yet Dickinson's transcendental humor and irony are some of the profound sources of her popularity. Lyrics tend to follow a formal structure that determines their form, meter and rhyme scheme. One of the most common meters used in lyric poetry is iambic meter, which Dickinson skillfully incorporates into the poem. The strong rhythmic pattern of the form contributes to the musicality of the poem, describing a typically lyrical quality. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay Overall, without elaborate philosophy, but with compelling ways of expression, Dickinson's poems have a true lyrical appeal, because they make abstractions such as love, hope, loneliness, death seem close, intimate, and faithful and immortality..